Explosive compound.



'Nrran Smarts Patented April 19, 1903:.

PATENT Fries,

sxstosivs cowi POUND.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letter; Patent No. 757,713, dated April 19, 1904.

Application filed October 18, 1902. Serial No. 127,812. (No specimens.)

10 alt whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, JOHN P. ARNOLD, a resident of Colfax, in the county of McLean and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Explosive Compounds, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in explosive compounds and method of making the same, and refers more specifically to the production of an improved smokeless or semismokeless gunpowder well adapted for use in small firearms and for analogous purposes.

The object of my invention is to provide an explosive which may be readily ignited, which burns uniformly and rapidly, thereby imparting a high rate of speed to the projectileor charge and with a minimum amount of recoil; to provide a compound which is not objectionably sensitive to moisture and not seriously affected thereby within reasonable limits; to provide a compound which burns with the production of a minimum amount of visible smoke and which fouls the chamber of the firearm to a minimum degree; to provide a compound the ingredients of which are of relatively low cost and which is mixed or compounded in an extremely simple and economical manner, and in general to provide an improved explosive compound of the character referred to.

The invention consists in the matters hereinafter described, and more particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

My improved explosive consists of chlorate of potash, yellow prussiate of potash, saltpeter, sulfur, and tannin, or the equivalents of these ingredients, which, according to my improved method, are compounded or mixed as follows: To make onehundred poundsof powder 1 take chlorate of potash, forty nine pounds; yellow prussiate of potash, thirty pounds; saltpcter, ten pounds; sulfur, five pounds; tannin, six pounds. These several ingredients l finely pulverixc separately in any suitable and usual manner and then mix the ingredients while dry. The ingredients are then mixed with about five gallons of a liquid which is a solvent of the tannin and is not a solvent of the other IDEX'OHWHES. Al-

cohol is such a solvent. Preferably I. employ wood-alcohol of that kind commonly known as Colombian spirits. The ingredients having been mixed with the alcohol, I preferably boil the mixture from two to five minutes in a suitable vessel and thereafter cool and drain the composition and allow it to dry into a pies tic mass of the proper consistency to be granulated by passing it through a suitable granu'latingscreen. The mixture is then granulated by passing through a screen and thereafter thoroughly dried.

Instead of boiling the mixture 1 may extend the treatment over a greater length of time and reach the same end-namely, the dissolving and thorough distribution of the turn nin without the employment of heat-that is to say, the tanninis. soluble in alcohol without heating the latter--and the thorough distribution of the tannin may be accomplished by mechanically agitating or mixing instead of by ebullition.

The tannin referred to as forming one of the ingredients is preferably ordinary com: mercial tannic acid; 111 place of common salt peter (nitrate of potash) I may use as an alternative nitrate of soda, (Chili saltpetcr,) and the term :saltpeter used in the claims is intended to include both. The tannin may be supplied in any one of the forms or" tannic acid or tannins. That step or' the process which consists in treating the ingredicntsin a solvent of'r-he tannin is an important feature or step in securing the desired results, it being found that the powder so produced possesSeS greater p burns more uniformly and rapidly, and is less susceptible to moisture. It is believed that the solvent acts to dissolve the tannin and insur that a h particle ot' the several ingredients is thoroughly covered or coated with tannin and that, thi

results in an improved composition a d prodnot. that the treatment of the ingredients in 51 t;- vent in theuuanner described substantlall improves the character of the compound, al though it is probable that no substantial quantity of the alcohol remains in the powder after the latter has been granulated and thoroughly dried.

At any rate it has been demougt t 'd A powder compounded in :wcordaiuw. \v'ilh nrv invention is entirely safe to handle, i,u'-

' chlorateot'potash, ,vcllow prussiate ol' pota h.

nitmvery 1eadil v,.and is practically sniokw less when used in lllHll'lllN.

pheri'c conditions, and even though it he- Moreovcr, it in not substantially ati'ectcd Irv ordinary atmoscomes rel'ativeh damp it ignites and burns freelywhile in this condition. lts rate of conihustioii is relatively high or rapid, and the explosion is :wcoinpanied by the minimum amount of recoil.

\Yhile l have herein described what I deem to he theprefm-red proportions of the Several ingedients, yet it will of course he under- Stood that theme proportions may be to a cer-' tain extent varied without departingfrom the invention.

I claim as my invention- I. An explosive compound, consisting of sallpr-ter, sulfur and tannin, sulmtantially as lu-rcin described.

2. An explosive compound consisting of chlorate of potash, ,vellow prussiale of potash, saltpctcr, vsulfur and tannin, the tannin existadherent to the non-soluble substances.

3. An explosive compound consi.v ing of chlorate of potash, yellow prussiate of potash, saltpeter, sulfur and tannin, the tannin existing in the compound as a coating of the insoluble ingredients, brought to this condition by being dissolved in alcohol, and the latter evaporated out, substantially as described.

JOHN P. ARNOLD.

\Vitnesscs:

ALBERT ll. GRAVES, L. F. MeUnnA.

nag in the compound in the form of a binder 

